Southland Center (Michigan)
Southland Center (also known as Southland Mall) is an enclosed mall located at 23000 Eureka Road in Taylor, Michigan (a Downriver community located southwest of Detroit), exactly halfway between U.S. Highway 24 (Telegraph Road) and the Interstate 75 freeway, presently anchored by Macy's, JCPenney, Best Buy, Shoe Carnival, Forever 21, Ulta, H&M and a 12-screen Cinemark movie theater, as well as Target in an outlot parcel. Adjacent to the right of the mall is Cross Creek Plaza. It is the newest of the Detroit area's four "land" malls (Northland, Southland, Eastland, Westland). Southland Center opened on July 20, 1970. It is owned and managed by Brookfield Properties Retail Group, one of the largest mall owners in the United States. History Southland Center was designed by Victor Gruen Associates and Louis G. Redstone Associates, and the newly formed Dayton-Hudson Corporation (a merger of Dayton's of Minneapolis and Hudson's of Detroit) developed the mall. At the time planning commenced in 1966, the site was part of unincorporated Taylor Township, which incorporated as the city of Taylor in 1968. When opened in 1970, Southland Mall was originally anchored by a three-level; 272,000-square-foot (25,300 m2) Hudson's at the center of the mall and junior-anchored by a Hudson's Budget Store adjoining the main Hudson's to the east, a Woolworth's dime store on the southern side, and a Kroger supermarket on the eastern side. The center court, connecting the east and west courts, featured a large bird aviary. A wall fountain and stage were situated on the north wall of the east court. The Suburban Detroit Theatres Southland I & II movie theater, located off the west court, opened on October 8, 1970. Kroger built a larger facility across Eureka Road in the mid-1970s, with the former store gutted and divided into several smaller stores, attached to a new wing ending in a new two-level; 215,000-square-foot (20,000 m2) JCPenney store in 1976. In 1977, Meijer Thrifty Acres opened to the left of the mall. The theater was reconfigured into a four-screen venue as the Southland 4 and reopened on December 16, 1983, and was purchased by AMC Theatres in 1986. On October 7, 1987, Target was added as an outparcel, becoming one of the first six stores Target opened in the state of Michigan. Then in 1988, a small addition was built onto the western side, including a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m2) Mervyns store. Also in 1988, The Rouse Company acquired the mall from its previous owners. In 1990, Kohl's and F&M Distributors opened to the right of the mall. A food court called Picnic In The Garden opened in 1992 as part of an addition to the southern side (which also included two new store spaces that are presently occupied by Champs Sports and New York & Company) and featured a large triangular-shaped skylight. Food court tenants included McDonald's, Sbarro, Subway, Dairy Queen, and Lafayette Coney Island. Also in 1992, Phar-Mor and SourceClub briefly opened to the northwest of the mall. The AMC Southland 4 closed in January 1999 and was replaced with a 22,500-square-foot (2,090 m2) Borders Books & Music in August 2000. Hudson's was renamed Marshall Field's in 2001 and Macy's in 2006. Also in 2006, Mervyns exited Michigan and vacated its anchor in the mall (that space was subsequently demolished in 2015) and the food court, which had lost all of its tenants in late 2005, was demolished (except for the skylight) and rebuilt into a 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m2) Best Buy store. The Borders store was shuttered with the chain in September 2011. Rouse Properties was spun off from General Growth Properties in January 2012. The company then added several new tenants; including rue21, Torrid and Taco Bell, to Southland Center, in addition, several other stores also renovated their stores. Forever 21 moved from an existing store in the mall to the former Borders space in spring 2013 Then, later in 2013, several smaller store spaces near JCPenney were demolished and replaced by a new 11,300-square-foot (1,050 m2) Shoe Carnival store (which relocated from Burlington Square Plaza). On July 2, 2014, Rouse Properties announced that the vacant-for-eight-years Mervyn's space would be replaced by a 12-screen, all-digital, Cinemark multiplex theater (which ultimately opened in April 2016 after several opening date changes), accompanied by several outdoor sit-down restaurants, including the first Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Michigan (which opened on April 24, 2017, and barely lasted over a year before closing on July 19, 2018). This announcement came just one day after an announcement by MJR Digital Cinemas that they would be reopening the former AMC Star Taylor 10 multiplex theater in Burlington Square Plaza by the 2014 Christmas season, however, that plan never materialized and that building remains abandoned. In addition, in the late summer of 2014, a complete renovation of the mall began. This project added and lighting, removed the fountain and replaced it with seating and electronic-device chargers and added several more tenants including Pink, Francesca's and Zumiez. This project was completed in the summer of 2015. Ulta opened a location in the mall along the corridor between Macy's and Best Buy on August 29, 2014. H&M opened on October 1, 2015, requiring the demolition of a total of ten smaller storefronts stretching from the west court into the Cinemark wing, necessitating the relocation of the Taco Bell restaurant across the corridor. As of September 2018, a portion of the third floor of the Macy's store is now a Macy's Backstage outlet store, Anchors * Macy's (292,000 sqft) * JCPenney (216,000 sq ft) * Cinemark Theatres (50,000 sq ft) * Best Buy (45,000 sq ft) * H&M (24,150 sq ft) * Forever 21 (22,500 sq ft) * Shoe Carnival (11,300 sq ft) * Ulta Beauty (10,000 sq ft) See also *Burlington Square Plaza *Cross Creek Plaza *Crossings At Taylor *Taylor Retail Center *Trader's Pointe Gallery Videos File:Montgomery KONE Traction Elevators @ Macy's - Southland Center - Taylor, MI|The Macy's Elevator File:Vintage Dover Hydraulic Elevators @ JCPenney - Southland Center - Taylor, MI|The JCPenney Elevator Category:Malls in Michigan Category:Shopping Malls Category:Single-Level Malls Category:Malls in the United States Category:Malls with Multi-Level Stores Category:Brookfield Properties Retail Group Malls Category:Malls that opened in 1970 Category:Macy's-anchored Malls Category:JCPenney-anchored Malls Category:Best Buy-anchored Malls Category:H&M Locations Category:H&M-anchored Malls Category:Target-anchored Properties Category:Ulta Beauty Locations